


Master

by theletterelle



Category: Bandom, Cobra Starship, Fall Out Boy, Panic At The Disco, The Academy Is...
Genre: Alternate Universe - Slavery, Dubious Consent, M/M, Multi, Slavery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-19
Updated: 2011-12-19
Packaged: 2017-10-27 13:01:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/296130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theletterelle/pseuds/theletterelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gabe does his best.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Master

Gabe hates the word “master.”

He never uses it, and Pete doesn’t make a fuss about it, as long as Gabe is respectful and obedient and not too loud. Which Gabe isn’t; he had that beaten out of him when he was a kid. He knows how to mind his manners, knows to say “sir” whenever he speaks to Pete and his friends. “Madame” for the ladies, although he doesn’t like being around them. He’s never lived around women before. They use the same words as men do, but there’s a second meaning behind each thing they say. It makes Gabe nervous. There are only a few who visit regularly, but they come en masse and it always seems like there are more than there are.

Men are easier; Gabe understands what men want. Pete is easy; a quick fuck before bed or first thing in the morning is enough to make him happy. The time Pete came back to the villa in the middle of the day, Gabe surprised him with a blowjob, and got to eat steak for a week.

He isn’t as well acquainted with what Pete’s friends like, but some things stand out. Disashi and Eric like to share. Ryland likes to watch. Alex likes to pull Gabe’s hair. Nobody hits; that would be rude, like saying Pete didn’t know how to take care of his own household. The furthest it goes is Mikey teasing Gabe, calling him “Lurch,” which Pete thinks is hilarious. Travis is even taller than Gabe, but he laughs too. So does Gabe. He can’t not. That would be worse than rude.

Gabe laughs at all of their jokes, really. Sometimes he makes jokes of his own, although he never pokes fun at any of Pete’s guests. He smiles at everyone, makes each one believe that he’s Gabe’s best friend. That asking Gabe to get their bags from the car is just a request, not a command. That he comes to their rooms out of choice, not obligation.

Gabe only loses the plot once. He’d like to make excuses, say it wasn’t his fault, he was tired from tiptoeing from one room to another all night, from Patrick to Joe to Andy to Bill and Sisky together. He caught a couple hours of sleep in Patrick’s bed before jerking awake from a nightmare that he had heard Pete calling him. No matter where Gabe ran, he couldn’t find Pete, and the longer it took, the more desperate Gabe got. He was sweating when he woke, and it took his heart ten minutes to calm down.

So yes, Gabe’s tired, and still twitchy from the dream. He doesn’t hear the first time Ryan asks him for coffee, nor the second. He’s resting on the arm of the sofa, eyes on the opposite wall, thinking about how good it would feel to lie down.

“Lurch!” barks Ryan finally. “Wake the hell up!”

It yanks Gabe out of his stupor. For a second he doesn’t know where he is, and all he can see is this kid, this fucking teenager glaring at him, holding out an empty coffee cup. “What?” he snarls. “What the _fuck_ do you--”

Everyone freezes. Everyone stares. Gabe can taste the words in his mouth, and his stomach goes cold. He can’t look at anyone. He really can’t look at Pete.

Mikey breaks the silence with a high-pitched giggle. It feels like the room starts breathing again. Joe laughs at the discomfited look on Ryan’s face, Bill and Patrick go back to their discussion of Halo 3 easter eggs, and Pete smooths everything over with Spencer and Brendon before coming up to Gabe. Gabe looks down at the floor.

“Go wait for me in the courtyard,” says Pete in a low voice. Gabe obeys without a word.

Pete’s not going to whip him. Gabe’s pretty sure of that as he trudges past the kitchen to the servants’ entrance. He doesn’t think Pete even owns a whip; he’s certainly never seen one around the place. Not that that means there isn’t one. Gabe hasn’t given Pete a reason to need it before.

Outside is cool and overcast. Gabe considers kneeling. Pete’s never asked him to, but maybe it will go better if Gabe takes some initiative, makes it clear he knows what their relationship is. Just because he doesn’t say “master” doesn’t mean Pete’s not. He kneels.

He’s still on his knees half an hour later when Pete comes strolling through the garden and up the steps. Pete’s heels tap along the flagstones. Gabe keeps his head down and watches Pete’s shoes come into view. He waits to hear what his punishment is.

Pete doesn’t speak.

After a few increasingly uncomfortable minutes, Gabe clears his throat. “I’m sorry, sir.”

“Are you?” Pete’s voice is idly curious.

“Yes, sir.”

There’s a pause. “You don’t want to throw yourself on my mercy? Beg forgiveness? Tell me you’ll never do it again if I let you off just this once?”

Of course Gabe wants to. But he won’t. It takes a lot of self-control to keep still and wait for whatever sentence Pete hands down, but he’ll do it, because even a slave has pride. Gabe doesn’t own anything else.

“No, sir,” he says.

“Look at me.”

Gabe raises his head and meets Pete’s eyes. He can’t read them.

“Is this going to happen again?”

Gabe’s throat constricts. “No, sir.”

“Why not?”

Because it can’t. Because this is the best place Gabe has lived since he was sold at fourteen, and if he screws things up here, he’s not about to move on to anything better. Because he won’t go back to being fed a bowl of rice once a day and scrubbing toilets and sleeping on a mat on the floor. Because even though it’s still slavery, being Pete’s slave is the closest to freedom he’s ever going to see.

“I know my place, sir,” says Gabe. “I’m very sorry I forgot it.”

There’s a long moment where Gabe isn’t sure what Pete plans to do. But then his mouth relaxes, and Gabe lets out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

“You’ll stay out here,” says Pete, “until I tell you you can come back in.”

Gabe nods. “Yes, sir.” He doesn’t try to get up. Pete looks at him for a moment more, then walks past him and into the house.

Gabe will stay on his knees. Gabe will hold still. Gabe will wait. Even though he snapped once, he will be obedient and respectful. After his mistake, any other man would make him say “master.” Pete won’t.


End file.
